Kristen M Thayer
@kristenmthayer.bsky.social
Software Engineer, Manager, Teacher. Seattleite. Old enough that I can hear the sound of dial-up internet when I close my eyes, young enough to care about up-to-date emoji usage. Kindness and joy are important. (Opinions my own). She/her.
Pinned
Lots of new followers (thanks Starter Packs!) so I'll reintroduce myself: I’ve spent the last 8 years in engineering roles (IC/manager). I’m a career switcher, and I love liberal artsy and communication-related things. Current non-coding hobbies include tap dance, embroidery, quilting, gardening. 👋
This feels a lot like the emails I get from my local Parks and Rec about billing that look like phishing attempts... emails don't match, domains are super weird, like at least 5 things they covered in my work training, thank you very much
The real QR code for Diamond Parking: points at arrive.com, which redirects to parkwhiz.com
The scam QR code my friend lost $40 to: points at stripe.com checkout page showing "Diamond Parking Service" as the merchant and the correct lot location as the product
How do you even defend against this?
The scam QR code my friend lost $40 to: points at stripe.com checkout page showing "Diamond Parking Service" as the merchant and the correct lot location as the product
How do you even defend against this?
November 14, 2025 at 12:59 AM
This feels a lot like the emails I get from my local Parks and Rec about billing that look like phishing attempts... emails don't match, domains are super weird, like at least 5 things they covered in my work training, thank you very much
This is now my most popular post... fourteen-year-old me would feel so proud
I had an English teacher who insisted that there should be a comma after every use of the word "and," no exceptions (super bad explanation of the Oxford comma)
I proceeded to write an essay full of phrases like "my friend and, I had to go to the store," to prove how wrong she was.
I was fourteen.
I proceeded to write an essay full of phrases like "my friend and, I had to go to the store," to prove how wrong she was.
I was fourteen.
October 15, 2025 at 7:13 PM
This is now my most popular post... fourteen-year-old me would feel so proud
I have been describing my current company as a place where we work reasonable hours, the product is profitable, and people are kind to work with, and people keep responding variations of awe and disbelief.
Which says a lot about where the tech industry is right now, I guess :-(
Which says a lot about where the tech industry is right now, I guess :-(
October 10, 2025 at 12:29 AM
I have been describing my current company as a place where we work reasonable hours, the product is profitable, and people are kind to work with, and people keep responding variations of awe and disbelief.
Which says a lot about where the tech industry is right now, I guess :-(
Which says a lot about where the tech industry is right now, I guess :-(
The pottery barn fantasy of what your kids' room will look like, compared to the fever-dream reality of what you *actually* negotiate with your kids to make them happy inhabitants of their room...
October 8, 2025 at 3:28 AM
The pottery barn fantasy of what your kids' room will look like, compared to the fever-dream reality of what you *actually* negotiate with your kids to make them happy inhabitants of their room...
This is my constant refrain as an eng manager!!
Fr. So much of tech communication problems boil down to being incapable of seeing that your audience is operating from a different set of priors and needs added context and information. Being dismissive never helps the situation.
October 7, 2025 at 11:55 PM
This is my constant refrain as an eng manager!!
Reposted by Kristen M Thayer
What if the real vulnerability all along was NPM? 😜
September 15, 2025 at 11:05 PM
What if the real vulnerability all along was NPM? 😜
Love this thread. I spend a lot of time thinking about all the tiny unseen things in systems that we take for granted, and that make them better. When I am sitting in a manager role, I try to notice and reward them; when I'm in a professor role, I try to help students think more deeply about them.
this is what makes my heart hurt when I look at the world: the idea that we can know what the "necessary" things are and do only those.
I saw it in terms of "professionalisation" - the instinct in late capitalism to strip away everything that is not part of a particular government role, job, or corporate product, and do ONLY that pure iteration, when it's often the peripheral, unwritten functions which keep everything working. 2/n
August 29, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Love this thread. I spend a lot of time thinking about all the tiny unseen things in systems that we take for granted, and that make them better. When I am sitting in a manager role, I try to notice and reward them; when I'm in a professor role, I try to help students think more deeply about them.
These are so cool!
In response to my rant yesterday, I was asked how we can make better parks and other public places for teenage girls? What do they want? I have answers to this, so now a positive 🧵.
Starting in Sweden, where this was co-designed by teenage girls.
Starting in Sweden, where this was co-designed by teenage girls.
August 29, 2025 at 4:04 PM
These are so cool!
Observation while working from coffee shops this week: Ballard seems to be very invested in making it difficult to access bathrooms.
August 21, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Observation while working from coffee shops this week: Ballard seems to be very invested in making it difficult to access bathrooms.
I just saw "AI-infused" as a descriptor and was like... sir, AI is not essential oils, this is a very goofy marketing term, 2/10
August 21, 2025 at 2:27 AM
I just saw "AI-infused" as a descriptor and was like... sir, AI is not essential oils, this is a very goofy marketing term, 2/10
In our quest to be The World's Nerdiest Family (TM), we just sang "Cookie Cat" at our neighborhood's Block Party karaoke (at the request of my older kid).
I'm happy to report that the 3 people who recognized it were delighted.
I'm happy to report that the 3 people who recognized it were delighted.
August 20, 2025 at 3:34 AM
In our quest to be The World's Nerdiest Family (TM), we just sang "Cookie Cat" at our neighborhood's Block Party karaoke (at the request of my older kid).
I'm happy to report that the 3 people who recognized it were delighted.
I'm happy to report that the 3 people who recognized it were delighted.
Finally a challenge I KNOW I can succeed at!!!
Hey, as a librarian I need to tell you:
Our funding depends on usage.
So go ahead and check out that book even if you don't think you'll finish it. No one will know. Check out that DVD even though you might not like it. Get ambitious in your quest for knowledge.
Our funding depends on usage.
So go ahead and check out that book even if you don't think you'll finish it. No one will know. Check out that DVD even though you might not like it. Get ambitious in your quest for knowledge.
August 12, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Finally a challenge I KNOW I can succeed at!!!
Clever
behold the "HTML bomb"
It's a counterattack for AI companies that persistently scrape and rescrape your web site, even when you tell them not to
when a scraper grabs it, it becomes a 10-gig HTML page and 💣 goes the scraper
Item #6 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter: buttondown.com/clivethompso...
It's a counterattack for AI companies that persistently scrape and rescrape your web site, even when you tell them not to
when a scraper grabs it, it becomes a 10-gig HTML page and 💣 goes the scraper
Item #6 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter: buttondown.com/clivethompso...
August 7, 2025 at 7:32 PM
Clever
I could live with never seeing words like "unrelenting," "daring," "fearless" in job descriptions ever again.
Just let work be work, and let people go home and unplug!
Just let work be work, and let people go home and unplug!
August 6, 2025 at 4:55 PM
I could live with never seeing words like "unrelenting," "daring," "fearless" in job descriptions ever again.
Just let work be work, and let people go home and unplug!
Just let work be work, and let people go home and unplug!
AI shifting the future of work 🙃
I don't think AI is ready for medicine but Google sure thinks otherwise www.theverge.com/health/71804...
Google’s healthcare AI made up a body part — what happens when doctors don’t notice?
The basilar ganglia does not exist.
www.theverge.com
August 4, 2025 at 3:21 PM
AI shifting the future of work 🙃
Watching the tech industry's AI push (and surrounding debates) feels a lot like watching the cerulean sweater moment in The Devil Wears Prada:
A small group of people at the top decide this *is* happening, the question is how it will trickle down to the "regular sweater" version for others.
A small group of people at the top decide this *is* happening, the question is how it will trickle down to the "regular sweater" version for others.
two women standing next to each other with one saying " but what you don t know is that that sweater is not just blue
Alt: The Devil Wears Prada clip where Miranda Priestly explains how the fashion industry starts with a cerulean trend that eventually trickles down to Andy's pedestrian blue sweater. This is the gif for the line "but what you don t know is that that sweater is not just blue, it's not turquoise, it's not lapis, it's actually cerulean"
media.tenor.com
August 1, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Watching the tech industry's AI push (and surrounding debates) feels a lot like watching the cerulean sweater moment in The Devil Wears Prada:
A small group of people at the top decide this *is* happening, the question is how it will trickle down to the "regular sweater" version for others.
A small group of people at the top decide this *is* happening, the question is how it will trickle down to the "regular sweater" version for others.
Reposted by Kristen M Thayer
I'm drinking the Bios Crash slurpee I hope it crashes my bios I hope I blue screen
July 29, 2025 at 9:29 PM
I'm drinking the Bios Crash slurpee I hope it crashes my bios I hope I blue screen
Reposted by Kristen M Thayer
It’s true. Sorry folks. There’s nothing that will tell you if an app is vibe coded except a 20+ year career in web services and a childhood of too much time on the computer. Good luck out there.
For 15 years, I watched brilliant and caring people desperately attempt to avert the privacy and data security apocalypse that’s upon us - which has now been massively exacerbated by dumbass-enabling AI tools.
They did their best, not enough people listened, and now, well, God help us all.
They did their best, not enough people listened, and now, well, God help us all.
We are going to spend the next few years finding out exactly *why* it was a horrible idea to unleash a tsunami of vibe-coded apps made by idiots and scammers on an unprepared world.
Welcome to the Entirely Foreseeable AI Consequences Era.
Welcome to the Entirely Foreseeable AI Consequences Era.
July 26, 2025 at 2:58 AM
It’s true. Sorry folks. There’s nothing that will tell you if an app is vibe coded except a 20+ year career in web services and a childhood of too much time on the computer. Good luck out there.
Some of those people were the ones who were the most welcoming to me when I switched careers into tech... they were like "isn't that how we all got here, really?"
(Also, this thread is great!)
(Also, this thread is great!)
I regularly bleat into young people's ears that there was no goddamn "tech career track" until recently. All the most senior people you know came from some weird shit. Our Deputy CISO ran a college Helpdesk. They came up from the bottom. Every single one of them has a different story. Relate to it.
July 24, 2025 at 6:05 AM
Some of those people were the ones who were the most welcoming to me when I switched careers into tech... they were like "isn't that how we all got here, really?"
(Also, this thread is great!)
(Also, this thread is great!)
Reposted by Kristen M Thayer
Troubleshooting walkthrough: Cascade Into Darkness
This is a real issue I solved in Windows, the hurdles I faced, and what I'd do differently.
🐥🐥YOU CAN MUTE JUST THIS CONVERSATION THREAD🐥🐥
It starts with the user editing "HKLM\HARDWARE" and misunderstanding an instruction and breaking Windows.
This is a real issue I solved in Windows, the hurdles I faced, and what I'd do differently.
🐥🐥YOU CAN MUTE JUST THIS CONVERSATION THREAD🐥🐥
It starts with the user editing "HKLM\HARDWARE" and misunderstanding an instruction and breaking Windows.
July 24, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Troubleshooting walkthrough: Cascade Into Darkness
This is a real issue I solved in Windows, the hurdles I faced, and what I'd do differently.
🐥🐥YOU CAN MUTE JUST THIS CONVERSATION THREAD🐥🐥
It starts with the user editing "HKLM\HARDWARE" and misunderstanding an instruction and breaking Windows.
This is a real issue I solved in Windows, the hurdles I faced, and what I'd do differently.
🐥🐥YOU CAN MUTE JUST THIS CONVERSATION THREAD🐥🐥
It starts with the user editing "HKLM\HARDWARE" and misunderstanding an instruction and breaking Windows.
What if turtle, but fast?
Please enjoy this turtle being given the gift of speed, and immediately using it to chase a kitty
July 20, 2025 at 10:53 PM
What if turtle, but fast?
"42" for a new generation
A Borges story about a guy who gets AI to summarize all the world’s information for him, and then summarize the summary, until the AI has the whole world summarized into a single word. He sits alone at his desk, staring at the word, repeating it endlessly, certain he is experiencing everything
July 14, 2025 at 3:23 PM
"42" for a new generation
Reposted by Kristen M Thayer
You are cordially invited to our Anti-Prime Sale, where every purchase will financially support bookstores, NOT billionaires 🥳
July 8, 2025 at 2:05 PM
You are cordially invited to our Anti-Prime Sale, where every purchase will financially support bookstores, NOT billionaires 🥳
Reposted by Kristen M Thayer
🧵 Technical leadership in open source isn't about control — it's about stewardship.
In OSS, you don’t manage people.
You manage trust.
In OSS, you don’t manage people.
You manage trust.
July 5, 2025 at 1:53 AM
🧵 Technical leadership in open source isn't about control — it's about stewardship.
In OSS, you don’t manage people.
You manage trust.
In OSS, you don’t manage people.
You manage trust.